RIP His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej

His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away on 13 October 2016, Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok. A truly great man who devoted his life to improving the lives of the millions of Thais in the country, he will be sorely missed and remembered always.

Here are some pictures of His Majesty covered by a few major publications:

Bangkok Post

The Guardian

Time

BBC

How to Save When Exchanging Money in Thailand

Where and when to change their money are questions that travellers always grapple with. To get the best rates, should you change your money before your flight, at the destination airport, or should you check into your hotel first and then sort it out later?

There are a number of ways you can get hold of Thai baht in Thailand. The cost savings vary among these methods but no matter which one you use, the exchange rate that you get is the factor that determines how much you save while changing money.

Things to Take Note When Changing Money

Make sure that:

• The notes that you have with you are in good condition i.e. clean, not crumpled, not torn, without any marks or writing on them. This is because if they are not in good condition, they can be refused.
• You have your passport with you. The moneychanger needs it for their records.
• Always check the receipt that is given to you for errors in the amount to be changed (in your home currency), exchange rate, and the final amount given (in Thai baht).
• Always check for counting errors by counting your money at the counter before walking away.

Transaction Fees & Commissions

The moneychanger usually does not charge any commission on the transaction. Some might even advertise this fact prominently at their establishments. However, make no mistake about this, changing money is not and never free. These people are in business for profit and while they do not list their fee separately, you can be sure that it has already been included in the exchange rate given to you.

So be wary of people who try to charge you an extra fee for changing money and always scrutinise the rate that you are given carefully. 

The Current Exchange Rate

You can get info on this before leaving for Thailand or if you have internet access, right in Thailand itself. To do this, just do a search on Google or Yahoo Finance (e.g. search for ‘USD THB exchange rate’).

While the exchange rate you get in Thailand will always be lower than what the rates provided by these sources (the difference is the profit taken by the moneychangers), you can use it as a gauge to see whether what you are getting is reasonable or not.

Where to Exchange Money

Here are some methods and places where you can change money, with their pros and cons.

In Your Home Country

While it is convenient, never change your money in your home country (including at the airport) - you will always get a low rate if you do so. Instead, bring your cash with you and change it in Thailand.

At the Airport

You can also change your money at the tiny moneychanging booths within the airports in Thailand. These booths are operated by Thai banks, are open 24 hours a day, and are often located both before and after immigration. 

Again, while convenient, changing money at the airport means that you may be getting a poor deal as the rates here are often lower than those elsewhere in Thailand, even when you are comparing rates across different branches within the same bank.

At the Hotel

Hotels and other places providing accommodation often provide moneychanging services. Again, while convenient, the rates that they give are usually low as compared to those at banks and moneychangers outside.

At the Banks

Banks can offer pretty good exchange rates, depending on which one you go to. As different banks offer different rates, the easiest way of comparing them is to go to a major shopping mall, where the various banks will often have branches located close together, and look for the electronic display board near the entrance of each bank. The current rates of the bank will be displayed on it.

Do note that the rates offered by a bank will be the same across all of its branches (with the exception of branches at the airport where the rates can be lower).

At the Moneychangers

These are easily found in shopping centres, tourist areas, as well on the streets. Many of them display their rates on electronic display boards as well and their rates can sometimes be even better than those offered by the banks.

Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)

Sometimes, a store or hotel may give you the option of paying for your purchases in your home currency instead of in Thai baht. This is offered for the convenience of those who wish to make a purchase on the spot but yet do not have local currency.

While these retailers do not offer moneychanging services per se, the fact that they have this option means that they are effectively changing money as well, but not for everybody, just for their customers. And like the hotels, the rates they give are often poor.

Therefore, always insist on paying in Thai baht in these situations, even when you are using your credit card.  

Conclusion

You will always lose some money when exchanging it; the more you change, the more you lose.

Differences in exchange rates are not a big deal if you are changing just a small amount for immediate use, e.g. taxis, food, initial expenses etc. But if you are changing a large amount, it is best that you go to the banks and moneychangers as they give the best rates among all of the available options. And even so, be sure to check the prevailing exchange rates often as they fluctuate from day to day. 

Ways to Minimise or Avoid the 200 Baht ATM Withdrawal Fee

When travelling around Thailand, it is good not to carry too much cash on you in case you lose it due to carelessness or theft. Fortunately, the wide network of ATMs in the country makes it easy for you to do so.

Which ATM Can You Use?

Most ATMs in Thailand accept foreign bank and credit cards issued by major international banking networks and you can withdraw Thai baht from them.

To know whether an ATM accepts your bank card or credit card:

• First, look at the logos on the front and back of your cards to see which networks your card is on. You should see logos from Cirrus, PLUS, Maestro, Visa, Mastercard etc. 
• Next, look at the ATM and see whether the machine supports the networks your card is on. This will usually be displayed prominently at the front of the machine

Using the ATM

ATMs in Thailand have instructions in English. For the password, you enter the same one that you use for the card in your home country.


Transaction Charges to Watch Out For

Every withdrawal transaction from Thai ATMs using a foreign bank or credit card incurs a few charges. These are charged on a per transaction basis and apply regardless of the amount withdrawn, be it 100 baht or 10000 baht. They include:

• A 200 baht fee charged by the bank that owns the ATM. 
• A fee charged by the bank or financial institution that issued your card. The fee can be a flat rate or a percentage of the withdrawn amount, depending on how they charge for this. 

Currency Conversion Rates

This is not a charge but as this costs you money as well, you need to watch out for it.

As the money that you withdraw is in Thai baht, the rate at which your withdrawn amount is converted from your local currency into Thai baht is determined by the issuing bank or financial institution of your card. This rate is usually less favourable than the one that you can get outside at the moneychangers.


Ways to Minimise the ATM Withdrawal Fee

Make Fewer Transactions

Most ATMs have a per transaction withdrawal limit of 20000 baht. Plan your spending carefully and try to withdraw the maximum amount each time so that you will need to make fewer transactions.

Take Note of the Different ATM Withdrawal Limits

Most ATMs have a per transaction withdrawal limit of 20000 baht but for some, the limit is higher, e.g. Bangkok Bank 25000 baht, Bank of Ayutthaya 30000 baht, Krungsri Bank 30000 baht.

AEON ATMs

These have a lower withdrawal fee of 150 baht per transaction but not all cards may be accepted.

Citibank ATMs

Although they are limited in number and can be hard to find, using European or UK bank cards to withdraw money from Citibank ATMs do not incur any transaction fees. However, there are apparently exceptions to this, so it is best to check beforehand on this.

United Overseas Bank (UOB) ATMs

Not sure whether this works for people with UOB accounts in other countries as well but if you have a UOB bank account in Singapore, you can withdraw Thai baht from any UOB ATM in Thailand with no transaction fee charged at all.

You can even check your account balance as well.

Thai Ingenuity: Table & Chair Ideas

Getting Around Thai English

About Singapore English or Singlish

Foreigners in Singapore often have a hard time understanding Singaporeans when they use Singlish, or Singapore English, during informal settings, e.g. gatherings with friends and family. This is because, besides being grammatically incorrect, a Singlish sentence is often constructed with words from more than one language (English, Chinese, Hokkien, Malay etc). Here is an example of a Singlish sentence:

Yesterday I was so sian (meaning bored in Hokkien) at home so I went out. But it was so hot outside that I tak boleh tahan (meaning cannot take it or cannot endure in Hokkien). 

Adding to the confusion is the fact that colloquial words and terms are added to the mix as well. As such, it is impossible for a foreigner to understand Singlish without spending a bit of time and effort into studying it.

About Thai English

Thai English poses a similar problem to foreigners. Foreigners to Thailand would have usually have their first encounters with Thai English from Thais in the service industry such as taxi drivers, waiters, street vendors, sales assistants etc. Although many Thais can speak English to some degree, understanding what they say or getting yourself understood is often not easy (this is referring to Thais in general and excludes those who have really studied the language properly or in depth). This is because Thai English is not quite the same as English in the USA or the UK – grammar rules are often not observed and many English words are pronounced in a uniquely Thai way.

For any visitor to Thailand, it will soon become apparent to them that they have to speak English with a Thai accent in order to make everyday Thais understand what they say.

Tones

Thai is a very musical language and some foreigners have likened it to bird-song. Like Chinese, Thai is a tonal language, which means that a word will take on different meanings depending on the tone that is used to pronounce it.

The most famous example is perhaps the Thai phrase mai mai mai mai mai. To many of us, this looks like a meaningless string of five identical words. However, when these words are pronounced using the appropriate Thai tones, they suddenly take on meaning “new wood does not burn, does it?”

Thais speak largely in a monotone when speaking English (though there may be tonal changes in the final syllable of a word sometimes). Considering that tones are so important in Thai (and also the fact that Chinese has four tones while Thai has five), you would suppose that Thais would pronounce words in the same way as native English speakers but this is not so.

Grammar

Grammar rules are often not observed by Thais when speaking English. Examples of sentences they may construct include:

“I no like”.

“He very nice man”.

“She pay already”.

“This bag very nice”.

“You speak Thai very good”.

“You come here how many times?”.

This is primarily because grammar rules in the Thai language is different from those in English and also that English grammar can be hard to master.

Syllable Emphasis

Unlike native English speakers who emphasise certain syllables within a word (the syllable being emphasised is longer in time length than the others), Thais generally pronounce English words with equal emphasis on each syllable (equal time length for all). This is the reason why words like to-MOR-row, IN-for-ma-tion, SHOP-ping, TI-red etc, sound flat when a Thai is pronouncing them. To put it another way, it sounds like the person is speaking in a monotone.

However, Thais do stress syllables (pronouncing a syllable with a different tone) when pronouncing certain words. The stress is often on the final syllable of the word and it is achieved by pronouncing it with a:

• Rising tone (you start from a low tone of voice and then raise it. E.g. tone similar to that when you question someone with the word “Well?”)
• Falling tone (you start from a high tone of voice and then lower it. E.g. tone similar to that when you pronounce the word ‘height’)

However, it is not clear as to when to stress the final syllable a word or not and when to use a rising/falling tone. Out of the few word examples earlier, only tired would be pronounced with no stress on the final syllable. The final syllable of the other words would be stressed, i.e. pronounced with a falling tone. Listen closely to which words Thais stress the final syllable of and what tones they use when they do. You will get the hang of it after a while.

Thai Pronunciation in Use

As I am not an English teacher, I am not qualified nor knowledgeable enough to provide detailed information on Thai spoken English. The section below provides some basic guidelines on how Thais pronounce certain words. By no means exhaustive, this will give you an idea on how to pronounce a word, when you see it, so to make yourself understood in a Thai context.

Note: If the final syllable of a word is to be stressed, it will be indicated with (ris) for rising tone and (fal) for falling tone.

Starting Sounds & Letters

* ‘v’ is often pronounced as ‘w’

• very                 is pronounced as         wely (fal)
• voice                is pronounced as         woice (ris)
• VIP                  is pronounced as         wee-I-P

* ‘r’ is often pronounced as ‘l’

• right                 is pronounced as         light (ris)
• road                 is pronounced as         load (ris)

* For words with two consecutive consonants in the first syllable (e.g. fl, fr, sc, tw, sl, sm, sw, sp, sk, st), an ‘a’ is added to the first letter of the word to create a new syllable in front.  

• flock                is pronounced as         fa-lock (ris)
• friend              is pronounced as         fa-lend
• school              is pronounced as         sa-cool
• twin                 is pronounced as         ta-win
• slow                 is pronounced as         sa-low
• smoke              is pronounced as         sa-moke (ris)
• sweep              is pronounced as         sa-weep (ris)
• speak               is pronounced as         sa-peak (ris)
• skin                  is pronounced as         sa-kin
• straw                is pronounced as         sa-taw

Middle Sounds & Letters

* ‘v’ is often pronounced as ‘w’

• Sukhumvit      is pronounced as         Sukhumwit (ris)
• never             is pronounced as         nair-wer (ris)
• vanilla            is pronounced as         wanilla
• TV                 is pronounced as         tee-wee

* The sound of consonant clusters (i.e. a pair or group of consonants) in the middle of a word is often omitted.

• problem           is pronounced as         por-berm (fal)
• brother            is pronounced as         ba-ter (fal)
• frog                 is pronounced as         fog (ris)
• brake               is pronounced as         bake
• fried                is pronounced as         fide (ris)

  

Ending Sounds & Letters

There is only a limited number of ending sounds for words in the Thai language. English words with ending sounds that do not fall within these are often pronounced without the ending sound or have the ending sound converted to another one.

* The sound of the ending letter or syllable is omitted.

• mend              is pronounced as         man
• pump              is pronounced as         pum (ris)
• red                  is pronounced as         lay-ade (ris)
• with                 is pronounced as         wee-eed (ris)
• cake                 is pronounced as         k-ache (ris)
• cute                 is pronounced as         cue-ood (ris)
• change             is pronounced as         chay-ane (ris)

* ‘-ed’: usually not pronounced.

• cooked             is pronounced as         cook (ris)
• fried                 is pronounced as         fry    

* ‘-el’ and ‘le’: these are pronounced with a ‘earn’ sound.

• Michael            is pronounced as         Mi-kern (fal)
• Russell             is pronounced as         Russ-sern (fal)
• apple               is pronounced as         app-pern (fal)
• bubble             is pronounced as         bub-bern (fal)

* ‘-us’: this is pronounced with a ‘us’ sound.

• lotus                 is pronounced as         low-tuss (ris)
• virus                 is pronounced as         wi-russ (ris)
• chous               is pronounced as         core-russ (ris)

* ‘-tion’: this is pronounced with a ‘shun’ sound.

• station              is pronounced as         stay-shun (fal)
• information       is pronounced as         in-for-may-shun (fal)

* ‘-es’ / ‘-se’ / ‘ss’ / ‘-ce’ etc: the ‘s’ ending sound is replaced by a ‘d’ sound.

• yes                  is pronounced as         yed (ris)
• cheese             is pronounced as         chee-eed (ris)
• lease                is pronounced as         lee-eed (ris)
• lace                 is pronounced as         lay-ed (ris)

* ‘-lon’: this is pronounced with a ‘lawn’ sound.

•  melon              is pronounced as         mare-lawn (fal)
• gallon               is pronounced as         gal-lawn

* ‘-lar’: this is pronounced with a ‘la’ sound.

• similar              is pronounced as         see-mee-la (fal)
• singular            is pronounced as         sin-gew-la (fal)

* ‘-nal’: this is pronounced with a ‘nair-l’ sound.

• international     is pronounced as         in-ter-nair-shun-nair-l
• regional            is pronounced as         ree-ja-nair-l
• professional      is pronounced as         pro-fess-shun-nair-l

Words With Unusual Pronunciations

Here are some words that are not pronounced like they are written but are not numerous enough to form a guideline.

• shopping          is pronounced as         chop-ping (fal)
• album              is pronounced as         ah-la-bum (fal)
• central              is pronounced as         cen-tarn (ris)
• chocolate          is pronounced as         chock-ko-lard (ris)
• major               is pronounced as         may-yer (fal)
• channel            is pronounced as         chan-nair-l (fal)
• Liverpool         is pronounced as         liver-poon
• Arsenal             is pronounced as         are-sir-nern (fal)
• technology        is pronounced as         tech-nor-ler-yee
• Siam                is pronounced as         Sai-yum (ris)
• Paragon            is pronounced as         pah-rah-gone (fal)

Thai Ingenuity: Tyre Rubbish Bin

I happened to come across something interesting during a trip to a temple in a rural area. A rubbish bin made of recycled tyres of different sizes. 

I have never seen this on sale before anywhere. Pity I did not see anyone around, otherwise I would have made him an offer for it.